Welling, Swimming Pool, Danson Park c.1950

Photo ref: W281004

In the Fifties my family used to live in Gipsy Road. Once a month, or so, I was taken to visit friends of my stepmother, Uncle Andy and Auntie Kit, who lived at the Bexleyheath end of Long Lane. This involved a long walk to get there but along the way there was a handy short cut path between Brampton Road and Long Lane. There were no houses lining this pathway but on one side was a sprawling tomato nursery where ...see more

I grew up in Welling in a house on Ridley Road. My mother lived in that house for over 60 years until she died this past January. I have 3 sisters - that was a tiny house with 1 bathroom, at times we seemed to really fill the place - felt more like a zoo with a dog 2 cats a rabbit, hamster and a gerbil . We knew everyone on that street - the guy who would never give back any of the balls that went over his fence, to the girls I ...see more

Welling in the Fifties had never been short of colourful characters plying their trade in and around the suburban Streets. I can fondly recall three from my childhood, the most memorable being the old rag and bone man who sat perched on his big wooden cart drawn along by his equally old nag of a horse. He always cried out his arrival with words no one understood, inviting residents to offload their unwanted junk which he ...see more

Light-years before the introduction of the mobile phone, Welling in the 1950's had mobile networks of its own. These were weekly delivery services to households in and around local streets. As a young child I was always excited by the Saturday arrival of the R. White soft drinks lorry and our usual order of lemonade, cream soda and Tizer. I remember well the familiar clinking of glass bottles in wooden ...see more